Budget wheels
New wheels are one of the shrewdest upgrades; we take five great-value models out for a spin
New wheels offer some of the greatest potential performance gains of any upgrade. Along with the other crucial part of the system – tyres – wheels drastically affect how your bike accelerates, changes direction, and also influence the speed it rolls along a trail.
The basic ingredients of a wheel are an extruded alloy or moulded carbon rim (usually 29in or 27.5in diameter), laced to a central hub (110x15mm at the front and 148x12mm at the rear) by tensioned steel spokes. Spokes can be different gauges (thicknesses) to give differing ride characteristics, and are often butted to save weight. The hub usually runs on sealed cartridge bearings and the freehub is normally modular in case you want to run a different cassette. All told, they’re a vital ingredient in your bike’s efficiency. Different products and designs have different strengths and weaknesses on the trail, the most important of which relate to acceleration, compliance or comfort, and strength.
Individual rim designs resist damage in different ways, and hub flange design, spoke choice (and quantity) and even the way the wheel is laced all affect durability. Which means that a set of wheels can make or break your ride on ride feel alone, and not just if they fail catastrophically – something that’s thankfully rare these days but can still happen.
The best wheel systems balance all these factors to offer the best compromise, because – you guessed it – the perfect set of wheels doesn’t exist. In terms of the more affordable wheels here, these compromises are even greater as there are simply more budget constraints. That’s because extra cash buys features like lighter, stiffer carbon rims that can make tougher, less flexy wheels at equivalent weights. Equally, the hub and rim technology here doesn’t always include the most secure seals, the fastest freehub engagement, or the most expensive alloys used to make the rims.
Whatever you’re spending, though, you’ll still want your new wheels to deliver a significant boost in performance. The aftermarket packages we’ve chosen here will improve many factors over the cheaper stock wheels specced on many complete bikes, such as rolling speed, durability, comfort and acceleration.
Our spread of five sets includes some lighter weight Xc/trail-rated wheels, designed to balance agility, inertia and compliance with strength and durability.